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(this version added Weds 19 Sep, 8:20 p.m. – the first two comments relate to the corrected clue to 23D printed with no. 1842)

Solving time: roughly 90 mins from memory

This puzzle includes two mistakes, one much more important than the other, at 3 and 23 down. At 23 down, the wrong clue was printed, and the solution to the original clue led to a clash of letters in the grid. Full details when we get to the clue, just in case anyone reaches this from an old copy of the paper or an uncorrected PDF from the Grauniad/Observer xwd site. At 3D it’s easy enough to see what went wrong and get the correct answer that Azed clearly intended.

Across

6

CLANG – 2 defs. The one you know about also means the cry of birds such as geese. Another meaning is the same as the German word klang – a complex tone.

10

T(REE)HUGGER(y) – it doesn’t take many barred-grid puzzles to learn that ree or reeve is the female ruff (a kind of sandpiper)

11

CHLORDANE – (hard on l(i)ce)*

13

L,EGO – nice unbalanced worplday here – L is indicated in two ways – left = L or {right side of wall} = L. Then the rest of the answer is indicated by a one-leter word. “constructed cheaply” is a colloquial meaning of Lego.

14

WURM – a complicated geological &lit. The four stages of glaciation in the Alps are, in helpful alphabetical and chronological order, the Günz, Mindel, Riss and Würm. That gives you the def. interpretation of the clue. The wordplay interpretation: initial letters of the middle two plus ‘warming up’ are melted, i.e. anagrammed.

18

SOLGEL – hidden backwards in ‘male glossies’

19

A,VA(I)LE – the Spenserian contribution to this puzzle, meaning ‘alight’ in the ‘get off a bus’ sense.

21

SPAIN,G – Chambers tells us that the noun ‘spa’ has been verbed.

23

CO(ME)ON – coon = a sly thief, and prig3 is also a thief.

24

CHIKARA – K in (a chair)*- sarangi and chikara2 are both Indian fiddles.

26

O.(IN)K. – careful parsing needed here – the “in” in the answer is indicated by “involved with”, and the “in” in the clue is a containment indicator.

28

AD,I,T – ad. and van3 are both short for ‘advantage’ in tennis, or so says the big red book – I’ll have to listen out for mention of the ‘van court’ in next year’s Wimbledon commentaries.

29

TIMOCRACY = (cry atomic)* – a form of govt. in which ambition is a guiding principle

30

CINQUE-PACE – an old dance (if you can have one-step and two-step, why not five?). Watch out for the Shak. version ‘sinke-a-pace’.

31

TAG,U.S. – the Protuguese river on which Lisbon stands.

32

SCROWLE – edges of scene = SE, and the overlapping birds inside are the crow and owl.

Down

2

EPHEBO=Phoebe*,PHILI=”filly”,A – passion for ephebes = young males

3

DROOB – Aussie informal for ‘ineffectual person’. The children ‘brought up’ are ‘brood’, but the reverse of brood is of course doorb not droob.

4

SERK(in) – ref. Rudolf Serkin, concert pianist.

5

THANNA – Han = Chinese in rev. of ANT. A thanna (check C for several other spellings) is an Indian police or military station.

DOOL – Scots for ‘bourne’ if you’ve seen that word as boundary/goal recently. I didn’t quite get the ‘mad McCoist’ bit, but linxit points out below that it’s doolally less Ally (McCoist).

15

P(LAIN)ING – ‘ping’ as of a gunshot. The whole is a Shak. word for ‘complaint’, and a bitch is an act of complaining.

16

SENARIUS – E in Russian* – a verse of six iambs

20

ENS,TY(L)E – tye2 = an area of pasture

22

GRIMES – the unfortunate lad in Peter Grimes is called Tom.

23

GAJO – hidden in ‘making a journey’ – was the original solution, but 23A starts with a C. The replacement clue given a week later is “Band leader, one on piano in small company (4)” which gives C(A,P)O.

24

COA(C)T – note that a Chesterfield is a garment as well as furniture.

27

SCAR(let) – straightforward enough but worth noting that scarlet = “bright red cloth” as well as “bright red” – or even “fine cloth, not always red”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 3:44 pm and is filed under Azed.
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3 Responses to “Azed 1841 – rare Azed slips?”

Strange that he didn’t mention the error in the wordplay to 3 down at the same time then! Still, not as serious as a clashing letter in the grid. Actually, there’s a mistake in 1842 too, which I’ll write about in the blog this coming weekend.

I don’t think Azed would have been aware of the error at 3D. I emailed him about the clashing error as he was about to go on holiday but hadn’t noticed the mistake at 3D, possibly because I’ve made that type of error myself, alas! Had he been able to specify the wording of the erratum, he would certainly have avoided the term ‘compiler’!